I really must use the celeriac. It is starting to haunt me. Celeriac has always deserved more than to be coarsely shredded, folded into mustardy mayonnaise and piled next to a few slices of ham. Good though it can be, there is more to this knobbly root than the classic remoulade.
I dispute its description as “the ugly one” and find its ivory skin, the crown flashed with pale green and freckles of brown, rather beautiful when freshly dug. Celeriac darkens with age. Skin removed, the crisp, snow-white flesh can be kept pristine with a splash of lemon juice.
Unlike carrot, parsnip and swede, celeriac makes a sloppy mash. Mix it with its weight in Maris Pipers. I have previously sliced it thinly and packed it in layers with potatoes in a gratin, and baked it with wafer-thin slices of swede with thyme, lemon and garlic.
I think of the root’s flavour as celery meets walnut. Steamed and reduced to a purée, celeriac produces a pleasing soup that is the essence of winter. It prefers to be cooked in milk rather than the usual water or stock. You don’t need to add cream. I made mine this week with the milk in which I had poached a piece of haddock, producing a soup warm with notes of smoke and bay. To flip the soup into a main course, I slid a piece of the smoked haddock into each shallow bowl then added the grilled bacon that is such a good friend to both fish and vegetable.
Tucking into the contents of our soup bowls, and digging up bits of bacon and haddock from the creamy depths with my spoon, I half wonder why the fat bulb of celeriac is always the last thing that gets used. Perhaps it should be the first.
Celeriac and smoked haddock soup
Good cooking is as much a matter of not wasting flavour as it is about not wasting ingredients. There is much smoky flavour in the haddock’s cooking liquor, so I think it is worth using it for cooking the celeriac. Bacon has something of an affinity with haddock, so I use it here to finish the soup. Cooking the rashers crisply means that you can shatter them and stir them in to your soup as you eat.
Serves 4
smoked haddock fillet 500g
milk 500ml
bay leaves 2
black peppercorns 6
celeriac 800g
parsley 10g, a small bunch
To finish:
smoked streaky bacon 4 rashers
parsley 2 tbsp, chopped
Remove the skin from the smoked haddock, then place the fish in a large, shallow pan, tuck in the bay leaves, pour over the milk then crack the peppercorns with a heavy weight and add them to the pan. Bring the milk carefully to the boil, then remove it from the heat, cover it with a lid and leave it to infuse for 20 minutes.
Peel the celeriac, cut it into large chunks then put the pieces into a deep saucepan. Remove the fish from its milk, then pour the milk into the celeriac pan through a sieve to catch the bay and peppercorns. Top up with 400ml of water, salt lightly and bring to the boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer until the celeriac is tender to the point of a knife – about 15 to 20 minutes. Chop the parsley.
Using a stick blender, reduce the celeriac and milk to a smooth soup. (Use a blender if you prefer, taking care not to overfill it, or use a food processor.) Add most of the parsley, check the seasoning and place over a low heat.
Put the bacon rashers under the grill, or fry in a dry nonstick frying pan until crisp. Drain briefly on kitchen paper.
Divide the fish between four shallow bowls, keeping it in large pieces. Ladle the soup, creamy-white and steaming, over the smoked haddock then top each with a rasher of crisp bacon and the remaining chopped parsley.
Baked celeriac with butter, lemon and thyme
A useful side dish this, and one that can be cooked in the oven with the roast it is to accompany. You’d be hard pushed to declare it a main course, but we happily ate it with slices of dark, fatty-framed jamon Iberico.
Serves 4
celeriac 750g
lemon juice of ½
butter 40g
thyme 6 small sprigs
rosemary 3 sprigs
You will need some baking parchment
Set the oven at 180/gas mark 6. Cut the baking parchment about twice the diameter of the baking tin then press it into the tin, leaving plenty of over-hang.
Peel the celeriac, slice it in half and then cut each into 4 to 6 wedges. Chop the wedges into thick slices and drop them into a bowl. Squeeze the lemon into the bowl. Melt the butter in a small pan and add it to the celeriac, then remove the leaves from the thyme and add to the bowl. Pull the needles from the rosemary sprigs and finely chop them, then add them to the lemon and butter. Season with salt and black pepper.
Tip the celeriac and its seasonings into the paper-lined baking dish then fold the paper over and seal. Bake for 35 minutes then open up the paper, turn the pieces of celeriac over then return to the oven and leave to cook for a further 15 minutes or so until pale gold.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @NigelSlater
